From the meeting this morning the traffic light is staying on green and the activity is just a normal phase..

,,The direction of the Plan of Civil protection by volcanic risk (PEVOLCA), and after receiving the conclusions of the meeting this morning, scientific working group maintains the normal phase in situation of early warning and green light of information to the public after the increase of the seismicity on 14 September. In the meeting held by video conferencing, have been present, scientists from the CSIC, of IGN, representatives of the General Directorate of protection Civil of the Ministry of the Interior, the Cabildo de El Hierro and the universities of Las Palmas and La Laguna.,,

,,The trachyte is a type of rock that is always formed under the bark. But Joan Martí, of the Institute of Sciences of the Earth Jaume Almera, dependent of the CSIC, view by phone from El Hierro which is exaggerated to speak of dangerousness and explains a Quo very clearly: that white portion “has a content in volatile of the order of the 4 or 5%, a temperature of 850 ° C and a density of 2300 kg/m3, making it more explosive”, but only represents 10% of the total mixture. Because 90% remaining (the black) is basalt, that counts with “only 2% of volatile, a temperature of 1,200 ° C and a density of 2700 kg/m3&#8243;, which greatly reduces the virulence of these volcanic eruptions.So El Hierro geologists know something: most of the magma is basaltic, and that means that it comes from the deep layers of the Earth. The mechanism by which that magma has been able to ascend from the outer core is exciting. Discovered it in 2005 Sebastian Rost and Edward Garnero (Arizona State University), and Quentin Williams and Michael Manga (from California). These geologists and volcanologists found that rushing chimneys of the Hawaiian volcanoes are assorted by what they called “roots”, through which different magma feathers (so called because of its shape of Wick) amount from 3,000 km further down. And that may explain why many volcanic islands have a very constant activity.,,

Description One of Indonesia's most active volcanos has erupted, shooting ash and smoke nearly 1 1/2 kilometers (one mile) into the sky. State volcanology official Kristianto says Mount Soputan on central Indonesia's Sulawesi island erupted Tuesday afternoon. Kristianto, who uses one name, says there is no plan for an immediate evacuation since the nearest villages are outside the danger area of about 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) from the crater. Mount Soputan is about 1,350 miles (2,160 kilometers) northeast of Jakarta. It last erupted in July last year, causing no casualties. Indonesia straddles the "Pacific Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines around the Pacific Basin. It has more active volcanoes than any other nation. Another mountain, Gamalama, erupted last week on the Molucca Islands.

Even though Icelanders are used to things moving about, this one probably worried quite a few. This is one of the places that is expected to get a 7M quake sometime “soon”, and with soon I mean somewhere during the next 100 years. What we are seeing is a micro-plate twisting about a corner that is locked. It creates several spots where large earthquakes can happen. This particular spot is believed to have 5M as a maximum, but at the opposite upper corner you can have 7M thrust faults, and those are not nice.

September 18, 2012 – JAKARTA, Indonesia – One of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes has erupted, shooting ash and smoke nearly 1 1/2 kilometers (one mile) into the sky. State volcanology official Kristianto says Mount Soputan on central Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island erupted Tuesday afternoon. Kristianto, who uses one name, says there is no plan for an immediate evacuation since the nearest villages are outside the danger area of about 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) from the crater. Mount Soputan is about 1,350 miles (2,160 kilometers) northeast of Jakarta. It last erupted in July last year, causing no casualties. Indonesia straddles the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin. It has more active volcanoes than any other nation. Another mountain, Gamalama, erupted last week on the Molucca Islands. –Huffington Post [link to theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com]

Authorities on alert as volcanic activity up in several locations across Indonesia

Posted on September 19, 2012

September 19, 2012 – INDONESIA - As two volcanos in the eastern part of Indonesia continued to erupt on Monday, Mount Merapi in Central Java has been displaying increasing activity, with rumblings in the past week. “In the evenings, there are rumblings that are accompanied by the ground shaking,” Sapto, from Samiran village in the district of Boyolali on the slope of Merapi, said on Monday. He said that the 2,968-meter volcano was also active during the day, as evidenced by the thick column of ash billowing out from its crater. Sapto said that as of Monday, local authorities had not issued any information to the public regarding the volcano. Subiso, head of Selo subdistrict in Boyolali, confirmed that no official advisories or warnings had been issued yet about the increased activity on Merapi. However, he said that the rumbling sounds from the volcano were almost routine in the area, and added that the situation there “is still safe.” Ngatini, another resident said that the rumblings did not disturb local residents too much. “If an eruption is imminent, the rumbling will be heard continuously and there will be some ash rain,” she said. Merapi last erupted in October 2010, spewing enormous amounts of ash. Pyroclastic flows, fast-moving currents of superheated gas and rock, killed more than 300 people along the heavily populated slopes and forced 350,000 to evacuate. Meanwhile, with a small eruption still taking place on Mount Lokon in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, authorities there are maintaining the alert status for the volcano and have banned all human activities within a 2.5-kilometer radius of the crater. Farid Sukendar, head of the Lokon volcano observation post, said that the mountain erupted after dusk on Saturday, spewing superheated volcanic material up to 600 meters and ash up to 1,500 meters into the atmosphere. “This volcano is active and therefore we should remain vigilant because it could erupt any time,” he said. Arnold Poli, secretary of the town of Tomohon, located at the base of the mountain, said that the authorities were continuously monitoring the volcano. He said that the series of eruptions had not affected the activities of the local population but added the authorities were calling on everyone to remain alert. He also said that despite the volcanic activity, the government had yet to evacuate anyone from the villages of Kinilow and Kakaskasen III, the two villages closest to the smoldering crater. “No one has yet been ordered to evacuate,” he said. Mount Soputan, in North Sulawesi’s South Minahasa district, and Mount Karangetang in the Sitaro Islands district across from the northernmost tip of Sulawesi remained on a government-ordered standby alert status, or just one rung below the most severe alert. “There are now three volcanoes in North Sulawesi under the standby alert status,” said Hooke Makarawung, head of the North Sulawesi Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBD). “People should remain vigilant.” He said that about 110 people had been evacuated from the slopes of Karangetang and that the North Sulawesi administration had sent relief supplies to them. Djauhari Kansil, the deputy governor of North Sulawesi, said that those evacuated were from East Siau subdistrict, but he added that in the daytime, the people were allowed to return to their village to work their fields. They have been asked to return to the shelters in the evening. The volcanology office also announced on Monday that it had raised the alert level for Mount Gamalama, on Ternate Island in North Maluku province, to standby. The office, on its website, said that the alert status was raised on Sunday. The 1,715-meter Gamalama, a conical volcano that dominates Ternate Island, last erupted in December, destroying more than 100 houses and leaving farmers devastated after a thick layer of ash smothered fruit trees and crops. Four villagers were confirmed dead in that eruption. Metro TV reported on Monday that the mountain spewed a white column of ash about 500 meters into the atmosphere. There was also some volcanic debris thrown up by the mountain but on a smaller scale. It also said the local volcanology authorities had declared a 2.5-kilometer exclusion radius around the crater of the erupting volcano. On Sunday evening, the smoke and volcanic debris thrown up by Gamalama reached about 1,000 meters into the atmosphere, according to the report. Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra also showed some signs of activity earlier this month. The volcano is the remnant of Krakatau, the site of an earth-shattering eruption in 1883. -Jakarta Globe [link to theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com]

“The earthquake sequence offshore north Iceland continued this morning with a M4.3 at 07:57 and M4.0 at 08:28. Both events have been felt in Siglufjörður, Ólafsfjörður and Sauðárkrókur. Several aftershocks have followed, one of which M3.0. Seismic activity is not unusual in this area, the situation is closely monitored. Written by a specialist at 19 Sep 11:11 GMT” [link to en.vedur.is]

,,Recent GPS data processed by INVOLCAN and the Nagoya University researchers show significant changes after the new seismic episode. In the image you can see the evolution in the station located in La Restinga. This has shifted from September 13 1.34 cm horizontally, with a South-East direction and has also promoted 4.81 cm vertical,,

I hope that this is a ghost. Otherwise it could be bad news. Thursday 20.09.2012 09:28:00 65.921 -17.029 1.1 km 3.4 48.86 6.2 km NNW of Þeistareykir

This swarm was different, it started with a rapidly growing tremor episode at Flatöy SIL station. As the swarm started it clipped as the signal got to strong when combining quakes and tremor. What this is a sign of I do not wish to speculate about. [link to hraun.vedur.is]

I hope that this is a ghost. Otherwise it could be bad news. Thursday 20.09.2012 09:28:00 65.921 -17.029 1.1 km 3.4 48.86 6.2 km NNW of Þeistareykir

This swarm was different, it started with a rapidly growing tremor episode at Flatöy SIL station. As the swarm started it clipped as the signal got to strong when combining quakes and tremor. What this is a sign of I do not wish to speculate about. [link to hraun.vedur.is]

In another case of media “spewing” over a volcano, Soputan in Indonesia had a moderate eruption today and Gamalama erupted over the weekend, producing a 1.5 km / 5,000 foot ash plume. Many of the nearby towns were coated with a thin layer of ash from Gamalama – as always, a respiratory hazard. However, no evacuations were ordered because, as State volcanology official Kristianto remarked, the nearest villages are 6 km from the volcano (which is close enough to give me some pause). It seems like every time there is an eruption in Indonesia that makes the international news, the Jakarta Post has to follow it up with an article on how volcanic activity is higher now than at other times. Any frequent reader of the Smithsonian/USGS GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity report would know that Indonesia is almost always busy with volcanic activity, so why they find it necessary to make it seem like something different is afoot is beyond me.

UPDATE: I confused the new eruption at Soputan this week with the eruption of Gamalama over the weekend. It should all be fixed now.

And if you haven’t checked out the excellent video of the September 3 activity at Anak Krakatau posted by Eruptions reader Oystein Lund Andersen, you really should.

Guatemala

Meanwhile, in Central America, activity has subsided considerably at Fuego, enough so that many residents evacuated last week have returned home, according to CONRED (the Guatemalan disaster agency). The volcano is still under a yellow alert status as new explosion may occur at Fuego, but lava flows are still apparent on the volcano (which is becoming a tourist draw due to this new, less dangerous, activity).

Washington

Nothing new to report from Washington’s Rainier, however, there were two articles that could be of interest. The first is a guest post I wrote for a Seattle Mariners’ blog, Lookout Landing, where I speculate what might happen if Rainier erupted during baseball season. Second, there is an article in the Seattle Times about a new array of seismic instruments that have been deployed on the Cascade volcano, ready to catch any rumblings that might occur. [link to www.wired.com]

Here is a map showing the two faultlines and how the currently active faultline run down to Theistareykir, then runs up to the point marked 1976 which interestingly enough is the end of Krafla fissure swarm, and that most likely erupted in 1976 after a M5 quake. As you all see it is a rather neat square shaped microplate. Now put your hand up almost to your screen and the map. Put your lefthand thumb against where you have Theistareykir, that is a seismic lock that does not move (call it a hinge if you wish). Then put a finger where you have Grimsey. Now, twist your hand clockwise without moving the thumb. That is how the microplate is moving. Interesting is it not? Around that little plate you have all sorts of earthquakes known to man.

Somewhere this explains Theistareykjarbungas large eruptive volumes. I do not know of any other volcano on the planet that is driven by so many different factors. Hotspot, mantleplume, rifting of the MAR, and it’s own little plate tectonics.

September 20, 2012 – AZERBAIJAN - Baku. Kamala Guliyeva – The Lokbatan mud volcano erupted in the morning has weakened, Executive of Mud Volcanism Department under the Geology Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Arif Huseynov told APA. Huseynov said that the eruption process is being studied. The volcano accompanied by a rumble at 05.00 spew flames at 09.00: “According to the preliminary observations, the eruption was powerful and mud spread across the area of more than 2 ha. The exact information will be announced after the measurements. But this eruption was more powerful than the eruption in 2010. At that time, the mud covered about 2 ha area.” Husyenov says that no flame is being observed in the area: “The volcano has already weakened. It is not likely to flame again, as it’s weakened.” The Lokbatan mud volcano is the most active volcano in Azerbaijan and in the world. Last time the volcano erupted in 2010. This is the 24th eruption of the volcano. Fortunately there aren’t any houses in the area, but there are oil wells. -APA

COLOMBIA - Seismic unrest has been increasing at the Cumbal volcano. 2 earthquake swarms occurred on 23 and 26 August, with 115 and 94 quakes, respectively. White gas emissions from the El Verde fumarole could be observed on 24 August. INGEOMINAS maintains yellow alert for the volcano. A small weak earthquake swarm was recorded early on 30 August. Weak seismic unrest continued over September 10. The last eruption of the volcano occurred in 1926. –Volcano Discovery [link to theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com]